17. The Animality of Humans
After a night spent sleeping back to back, Sui Tang went a whole week without contacting Wang Meili. They returned to their parallel lives.
After a night spent sleeping back to back, Sui Tang went a whole week without contacting Wang Meili. They returned to their parallel lives.
News of his bar's soft opening came from a repost by one of Meili's friends. She happened to pass by that bar with its tiny illuminated sign while out shopping, and went in once. Naturally, Sui Tang wasn't there. A handsome guy was cleaning.
She struck up a conversation, playing dumb and saying the bar was so unusual. She must have put on a convincing enough act, because she was rewarded with a detailed introduction and an invitation to the soft opening. It came in a very formal red envelope, festive as a wedding invitation. When she opened it, out slid a porcelain-white invitation card, letterpress printed, its surface textured with raised and recessed impressions. Wang Meili casually remarked that the invitation was exquisitely made, and the handsome guy immediately said the boss's girlfriend had personally designed and proofed it. She'd put a lot of thought into it.
Wang Meili caught the words girlfriend. "Oh? Your boss isn't married?"
He froze for a moment, then, cautious enough, said, "As far as I know, he's currently unmarried."
Wang Meili's life was full of surprises. She was already preparing to retreat when the curved loop of the bow on her trench coat belt caught on an oddly shaped bronze ornament. A glass at the edge of the table rolled onto the floor. Fortunately, the flooring was cork, though even so, the rim was still chipped.
"I'm sorry." Wang Meili hurried to apologize. She quickly assessed the quality of the glass, preparing to compensate them.
"That's the boss's girlfriend's exclusive glass." The handsome guy seemed to be on pretty good terms with that person. He burst out laughing. "She personally picked it out just last night. I'll tell her later... It's fine, it's fine... I was just joking..."
Since it was a joke... Wang Meili patted her bag and abandoned any plans to pay for it.
Girlfriend was such a lovely word. It suited someone as cold and temperatureless as Sui Tang not at all, Wang Meili thought, not without a touch of bitterness.
The second week, ST. asked her: 【Free】
Free? Those two words were truly worth pondering. Wang Meili made a bet with herself: between business and personal matters, this time it was personal. He wanted to have sex.
Wang Meili: 【Depends on what it's about.】
The next second, he called. Straight to the point.
Wang Meili was setting up a venue, surrounded by noise, with no time to answer random calls. He had only called once, and after that there were no more messages or calls. Wang Meili guessed he had found another way to solve his problem, or had simply given up. An entirely baseless fancy came to her: he and that "girlfriend" were, like the title itself, something very official, and couldn't just casually get horny and have sex whenever they felt like it.
People always said men over thirty were on the decline. Wang Meili wanted to know whether this uphill-climbing desire of his came from who he was, or whether it was only for her. Of course, the curiosity passed in an instant. She had no intention of digging deeper.
The third week, Sui Tang asked again: 【Free】【?】
This was the first punctuation mark Wang Meili had ever received from Sui Tang. Thoroughly intrigued, she stared at it for a long while before replying: 【Lately I've been into some sports you're not good at!】
ST.: 【What】
She got busy, forgot to reply, and her conversation was soon buried beneath a flood of messages. That afternoon, he sent another, pushing himself a little farther toward the front of the queue of red notification dots.
ST.: 【Golf】【?】
A second punctuation mark, and this time it had come in a follow-up message. It gave Wang Meili the illusion that Sui Tang had been waiting all along for her reply.
She laughed triumphantly, then, after laughing, promptly went blank. She thought for a long while but couldn't remember what sport she had originally meant to mention. It wasn't until that evening that she slapped her thigh and finally replied:
【Kiss!】
The fourth week, Sui Tang messaged her to ask whether she had time to attend the soft opening. There was a rather interesting event that night.
Wang Meili asked: 【What event?】
ST.: 【Come and you'll find out】
Of course Wang Meili knew what event it was. The planner had told her: a lights-out event. An old gimmick from foreign bars, yet somehow it counted as trendy once imported back home. She played dumb, and she really did go.
She heard that because the custom velvet bar stools hadn't arrived, the bar had missed its Christmas opening, which was truly a pity. Christmas was prime carnival season. Fortunately, city people loved novelty, and the place was completely packed for the soft opening that night.
Outside the mall, a huge crowd clogged the entrance beneath the tiny illuminated sign.
This door really was impossible to find.
She had come in a hurry. Originally, a friend had been coming with her, but two days earlier he'd been ordered by his boss to go on a business trip to the capital. She tried inviting Qin Su, but what kind of bar freedom did a married woman have? Qin Su asked whether she could bring her husband.
Wang Meili sneered, "Why don't you bring your two kids too, broaden their horizons a little. Start drinking young."
The invitation allowed her to bring one guest. If Jin Yu weren't going back to Shanghai today for the Lunar New Year, she probably would have brought him along to have some fun. What a waste not to bring someone. Such a great market, too. Back when she had been a poor student, she was absolutely capable of scalping a ticket.
Wang Meili stood with her arms folded and looked around, finally picking out a hot girl standing alone at the entrance, peering about expectantly. She asked whether the girl wanted to get in. The girl nodded, and so the two of them went in arm in arm.
The moment they entered the dim, shadowy room, Wang Meili accepted the girl's thanks, and they went their separate ways.
This place had originally just been a cafe, and the space was tiny. The crowd was bursting at the seams for the soft opening tonight. Wang Meili could barely recognize it as the empty bar she'd visited last time. She squeezed laboriously into the crowd. There wasn't a single seat. Awkwardly standing there, she ordered a drink, but the noise was so loud there was no way to make any special request. She merely stretched out a hand, hooked a finger, and a cocktail appeared before her. She had no idea what was mixed into it.
Pathetic. There was nothing to choose from. She quickly downed two glasses, then hit on a seated man beside the bar and was swiftly defeated, dismissed in just a few words.
Wang Meili took off her coat, revealing a silk camisole and wide-legged trousers beneath. Beautiful and alluring, she offered a smile to another young guy. Still rejected.
A miscalculation. Was she no longer capable of surviving in this country? She began to wonder whether she was getting old, though getting old had its own methods too.
She tugged at her camisole strap, lowered her neckline, then leaned forward in a deliberately cheap and suggestive manner toward a suited man half leaning against the wall. The moment he met her burning gaze, he immediately turned his face away, as if she were hideous enough to frighten people.
She must not have checked the almanac before leaving the house today. Frustrated and disappointed, she was already preparing to leave when she caught sight of someone familiar. Not that familiar, really. They couldn't even be said to know each other, the great beauty who had been beside Sui Tang at Binjiang Park last time. Wang Meili immediately connected her to the identity of "girlfriend."
The woman lounged smugly over the bar, laughing and joking with her friends, showing none of the discomfort Wang Meili was having trying to find someone to keep her company.
Wang Meili didn't see Sui Tang. With so many people here, she thought even the owner might not necessarily be able to get in.
She had no luck with the opposite sex tonight, but good people were rewarded. The hot girl raised her whiskey glass high to catch Wang Meili's attention and shouted "Jiejie!" at her several times, wildly hyped up.
Wang Meili took the drink and touched the corner of her eye, suddenly realizing where the problem with all those rejections lay.
Since when had she no longer needed to introduce herself for people to immediately place her in the jiejie category?
And since when had she no longer needed to make up a life story, but could simply raise a glass and speak fluently about her professional expertise?
Wang Meili leaned against the hot girl's shoulder and told her, "All mammals have a certain tendency to use self-abuse to express themselves. Judging from the literary works we have so far, females use love and romance, to abuse themselves. As for males, they use 'risking their lives' to abuse themselves. You know smoking and drinking are harmful to the human body, so why are they still revered by men as social tools?"
The hot girl regarded her as a great teacher. She had listened to her all night, and now she could only stare wide-eyed at her drink, shaking her head and waiting quietly for what came next.
Wang Meili patted her shoulder and said, "Everything jiejie is telling you, I normally charge money to talk about!" Then she continued, "According to some research... if I had a PowerPoint, those studies would be in my bibliography[1]. Hormonal drives compel some men to prove themselves through destructive and violent behavior. As society progresses, and public discussion and rules clearly define different levels of violence, some men take behaviors like smoking and drinking, which are implicitly regarded as lower-level and legal forms of violence, as a way of proving themselves, turning them into a small fighting arena. That's why, at social drinking gatherings, some men use drinking contests to abuse themselves. That's the animal nature of the male."
As she went on, her voice, tired, grew sharper with the rising volume. Even amid the boiling clamor of voices, there were ears sharp enough to catch everything. Hearing there was a sommelier here, quite a few listeners gathered around to discuss it with her.
Wang Meili quickly changed tack. “Wine tasting is different, though. Drinking in moderation for pleasure is exactly what we sommeliers ought to promote. Alcohol has been stigmatized. Used appropriately, it’s an excellent emotional regulator. Just like tonight...”
As the hands of the clock crept toward midnight, people came in and people went out. Overall, the crowd was gradually thinning.
“Anyone with faith...” The words that followed were swallowed by a sudden eruption of frenzied shouting.
Buoyed by the alcohol and all the attention, Wang Meili lost her sense of her surroundings. Only when the attention around her cooled did she slowly realize what was happening.
Following the crowd, she turned her gaze toward the bar two meters away. The young bartender, his hair slicked back handsomely, was standing on a stool, holding up five fingers, then four, then three...
Wang Meili narrowed her eyes and thought, looking at the handsome guy: His features are so big, but his face is so small. He looks Southeast Asian...
Beside her, she heard men and women excitedly joining in the countdown.
“Three! Two! One...”
“Ahhh!”
Chaos erupted.
When the lights went out, Wang Meili was jostled from side to side like one of those weighted roly-poly dolls. The only reason she didn't fall was because people surrounded her on all sides.
Her mind went blank. Dozens of beats later, she finally remembered the lights-out event. The alcohol hadn't managed to bring her emotions to a climax... She was getting old. Even at a lights-out event, she hadn't found anyone to use as an excuse to grope and kiss indiscriminately...
She had forgotten how much she'd drunk. Liquids of every color, all indistinguishable in the dark, had drowned her senses in dulled sensitivity. It had been a long time since she'd consumed so much liquid with such an unclear alcohol content.
So when someone seized her wrist and her body was pulled away, it took Wang Meili several seconds to realize that the icy wind against her chest and the forceful grip on her chin were not right.
Hm? Sexual assault!
In a flash, Wang Meili struggled with all her might and bit down on the other person's lip. The taste of blood spread through her mouth, shocking her sober. She had never expected that, after failing to take advantage of anyone else, she would be the one getting felt up by some pervert. She grabbed the person's wrist and struck a futile grappling pose, until the smell of Old Spice hit her nose and she finally understood who this bastard was.
Just as she'd thought. Who else would dare take advantage of her?
It was too dark. Sixty seconds with the lights out felt agonizingly long. Amid the punching and kicking, even the screaming seemed to stop for a moment. No doubt something equally passionate was happening elsewhere. Within that tiny, warm pocket of space, the movements of the male and the breathing of the female froze in a hazy blur of overexposure and lost focus.
He had taken advantage of every inch of her upper body, and this bastard had even taken particular pleasure in bullying the one part of her that was so full of feminine charm, the one part left uncovered today. At least the breasts of a defeated dog had earned themselves a consolation medal.
When the lights came back on, Wang Meili's back was pressed against cold tile, and beneath her hand she finally had something to lean against. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she realized everyone was still standing. Their positions... seemed unchanged, yet somehow changed. She was no longer two meters from the bar. She had been dragged into a corner.
Wang Meili touched the corner of her mouth, swollen high and split open. “Mm... My kissing technique is terrible.”
Sui Tang was difficult to provoke. His gaze swept calmly over her deliberate cat eyes. “Got it.”
Standing behind him, Wang Meili covered the corner of her mouth, trying to conceal it and only making it more obvious. Then she noticed that the hot girl was wrapped in the arms of a handsome young guy. When did those two get together? Wang Meili had always been first-rate at hunting down this sort of thing, yet she had been completely oblivious to the flirtation happening right beside her. Had she just been the background prop to someone else's flirting?
The more she thought about it, the harder she picked at her lip.
It was infuriating.
Sui Tang took her free hand and gave it a little shake. “Then... shall we practice tonight?”
Wang Meili frowned. “Practice what?”
Sui Tang watched the drinkers gradually disperse and said nothing more.
Wang Meili saw that he was wearing a suit, one hand tugging at his tie. He looked as though he had just come from a business engagement. Deliberately, she said, “No. I'm going home. My little brother is waiting for me.”
Her little brother had gone home, back to their hometown for the New Year.
Men really were heartless. The moment the words left her mouth, he let go of her hand.
Sui Tang slipped his hands into his suit trousers, his face stern, and strode toward the bar. Fortunately, after only two steps, Wang Meili grabbed him and pulled him back.
“Couldn't you make the invitation a little more enthusiastic?”
He had been so leisurely about it, as though he wanted to play a round of golf today and was merely asking her to clear the course for him. Wang Meili had said the course was busy today, that next time he should book earlier, and then he had simply left.
This is when you're supposed to raise the price, big brother!
He gripped her hand tightly in return, his expression stiff. Wang Meili assumed he was trying to organize some suitably passionate words.
Instead, he said coldly, “I only know how to do it.”
He didn't know how to say it.
Fuck! Wang Meili was so thoroughly seduced by that line that one exaggerated expression made her lips hurt terribly. Now there really was no way to clear the course. It hurt so much.
She tangled her fingers with his. “How do you do it?”
“However you want to do it.”
“I want to be on top!”
Deal.
They ran into the night.
Poor Wang Meili, dressed in nothing but a camisole, ran wildly after him through the zero-degree night air. She had forgotten her coat. He hadn't brought his “girlfriend” either.
She asked him, “Why not go with your girlfriend? Are you looking for excitement?”
Sui Tang froze for a moment, then a hint of amusement tugged at him. Rarely, he made a joke.
“You want three people? You should've said so earlier.”
Wang Meili jumped onto his back, kicking wildly with both feet dangling in the air and cursing him as a bastard.
The hotel was at the second intersection.
Only after entering the room did Wang Meili realize that Sui Tang had been drinking. No wonder he was so enthusiastic. She cupped his flushed cheeks and teased him in the tone one might use to coax a child.
“Next time, you definitely have to drink more.”
A drunk Sui Tang was a little more to her taste.
Sui Tang gave a low laugh. “Who was it that said men drinking was a form of low-level violence?”
He had actually listened to the nonsense lecture she'd been giving earlier. So he'd apparently been watching her for a while. Who knew how long he'd wanted to kiss her?
Wang Meili was intoxicated by the thought. “Stop taking me out of context!”
“I can't drink too much.”
He undressed quickly. Once he had taken care of himself, he reached out to peel off her clothes. Wang Meili really did seem drunk. She struggled hopelessly with her camisole and simply couldn't get it off. Sui Tang pulled it up in one motion without forcing it all the way off, then sealed his lips around her.
“If I get too drunk, you'll be exhausted.”
He was right. She really couldn't endure it. Alcohol lowered her sensitivity, which meant... it would take a long time.
#
#
That day, had Wang Meili finished reciting those words, perhaps they would have awakened her memory of Jin Yu. But she hadn't finished. She had followed her own animal nature instead.
The words she left unsaid were these: Anyone possessed of faith, reason, self-restraint, and self-love will not become a slave to low-level violence. They will be the masters of their own animal nature.
✦
Notes:
【1】The Dynamics of Alcohol 《酒的动力学》
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